Pargat dribbles on political playfield

By Ajay Bharadwaj | Place: Jalandhar | Agency: DNA

Former hockey Olympian Pargat Singh, who captained the Indian team in the early nineties, has now been dribbling on the political outfield on the Jalandhar Cantt assembly constituency.

The Akali Dal has fielded him on a new turf, where he has come with a clean slate to take on a political turn-coat. Jagbir Singh, who was till recently a close aide of Punjab People’s Party president Manpreet Badal,shifted his loyalty to the Congress a few weeks ago. Incidentally, in the 2007 assembly elections, Jagbir won the seat as an Akali candidate.

Pargat was till recently director, sports department, Punjab. “I was reluctant to begin with, but then I made up my mind to take up the challenge and play a new innings,” he said, while campaigning door-to-door in his constituency.

Taking a dig at Jagbir Singh, Pargat told voters, “Jagbir was politically dishonest because after all, he changed loyalties twice during five years. Whatever development works were undertaken in the constituency at his behest were in fact, the reflection of the Akali Dal BJP alliance government’s performance.”

He also lambasted his rival for not making the constituency his home all these years. “After he was para-trooped by Manpreet Badal, Jagbir remained ill at ease with the people,” he said with clear political overtones.

Asked how comfortable he was in the political milieu which was so different and vicious as compared to the sports, he said, “Surely it is a different ballgame. But the competitive spirit to out-pace your rival and find chinks in his armour is common to politics and sports.”

He said the goodwill he earned as a sportsperson was his biggest asset and coupled with the performance of the Akali Dal-BJP government, he hoped to taste his maiden political success.

Pargat Singh is the second prominent sportsperson to jump into politics in Punjab after former cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu in 1998.